The debate has raged in comment sections and on social media for years. Where should a new stadium be built in Canberra? How big should it be? How much are we willing to spend?
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Read below to find out what one of Canberra Stadium's original engineers says about the issue.
Few things get Canberrans riled up than the stadium. Comment sections are filled with debate about the location (City, Bruce, Exhibition Park, Phillip and more), politicians shuffle nervously knowing it's been more than a decade since the idea was first hatched, and fans are fed up with the lack of action.
The constantly changing timeline, location, design and projected costs continue to be a source of frustration.
As it stands, the ACT government is awaiting the return of a technical site analysis for the old Canberra Raiders headquarters on the corner of Battye St and Haydon Drive in Bruce.
It is hoped that will inform the next steps of this long and slow road to change.
It's cold comfort for Raiders and ACT Brumbies fans, who endure cold and wet nights at a 47-year-old venue which has had minimal upgrades over the past 24 years.
Not everyone agrees on how to solve the problem. So we asked one of the engineers behind the design of the original Canberra Stadium - and subsequent upgrades - and the Brumbies' games record holder to weigh in and give their answers.
'We don't need to rebuild everything': The argument for staying at Bruce
Ken Murtagh wants you to know that it's OK to say no. No to Civic, no to a roof and no to moving away from Bruce - the home of Canberra's major sporting teams since the 1990s.
As one of the engineers behind the original design of Canberra Stadium in the 1970s, and then upgrades in the 1990s, he says the city doesn't need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new venue.
Murtagh, now 83, says upgrading Bruce can be done at a fraction of the price and still pay homage to the decades of history at the capital's biggest venue.
"The idea of spending $500 million is ridiculous," Murtagh, who is still working as an engineer, said.
"Originally we thought [the stadium lifespan] was 50 years for the cables supporting it, but the concrete is fine. There are things you could do there to make it nicer ... but we have to be responsible citizens, we don't need to rebuild everything.
"We talk about being so responsible as a society, but we're not when we talk about spending all of this money and knocking something down. It's crazy stuff.
"And one of the things about the city stadium is the scale of it. It would forever make Parliament House look like a toy. Nothing is safe."
There are many in Canberra who are on the same page as Murtagh. They don't see the value in spending $500 million or more on a sports venue and prefer to do the bare minimum to keep the existing one going.
Murtagh, who still works for Bond James Murtagh, said the cost of building the eastern grand stand in the 1990s was $5.5 million. Those improvements, and upgrades to the Meninga Stand, were made in preparation for the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.
The stadium has always been owned by the Australian Sports Commission - a federal government agency. The ACT government leases the venue each year.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr wants to build a new $500 million, 30,000-seat venue at the old Raiders headquarters on the corner of Battye St and Haydon Drive.
Barr said upgrading the existing stadium was considered in an initial study last year, which examined 11 possible locations around Bruce and a potential refurbishment of Canberra Stadium.
He said that was ruled out because it was problematic due to needing to host NRL, Super Rugby and, possibly, A-League matches.
The government is awaiting the findings of a technical-site analysis for the former Raiders training centre, which is due back later this year, as part of plans to build a health and sports hub around the North Canberra Hospital and a new stadium.
The original Bruce stadium was built as an athletics track in 1977. It was reshaped to be used for sports on a rectangular field, but Barr said in 2009 it was nearing the end of its structural lifespan and a new option was needed.
Murtagh said the cable design to hold up the roof was ahead of its time and should be recognised as such.
"I think [the stadium being at the end of its lifespan] is political spin. There was an audit done recently, and if they found some dreadful floor, we would have heard about it," Murtagh said.
City lights: Why Civic is 'ideal', but perfect might take too long
Brumbies games record holder Ben Alexander is convinced a stadium in the city is the "ideal" solution for Canberra's sporting teams and landscape.
He played in some of the world's best stadiums through a long Super Rugby career and more than 70 Tests for the Wallabies, so he knows what works for players and fans.
Barr first raised the prospect of a Civic stadium more than a decade ago. He had initially set his sights on either a rebuild of Bruce, or a new venue next to the existing stadium, before nominating the Civic pool site as the perfect location for a stadium in the city.
It was flagged as part of the City to the Lake plan, but Barr killed off the stadium idea last year to turn his focus to redeveloping Bruce as part of a sport and health precinct.
"In an ideal world, Civic would be awesome," Alexander said. "It has the combination of hotels, pubs, bars, restaurants, transport and people.
"Of course it is the best option for a location if everything works out. A multi-purpose stadium in the city would be amazing. But how long have we been talking about this now? Maybe it's time to let the perfect go and just get something done."
Independent federal Senator David Pocock is still of the belief Civic is the best and only option the ACT government should consider.
Pocock used the prospect of a combined stadium and convention centre in Civic for his federal election campaign two years ago, but has been frustrated by delays in Canberra.
"Pairing [a new convention centre] with a new stadium in the city will deliver the biggest dividend for what will be a sizeable taxpayer investment and deliver the best end-user experience," Pocock said last week after it was revealed Barr had asked the federal government to pay 50 per cent of the new stadium costs.
"A stadium-hospital precinct out at Bruce is not the ideal solution, seems inconsistent with what the vast majority of stakeholders want and will ultimately incur a huge lost opportunity cost for our city.
"It's disappointing to see this lack of progress on the stadium issue and a lack of compelling ideas being put forward for our city."
The city stadium proposal would require the Civic Pool to be relocated. Commonwealth Park has been flagged as a potential new pool site, but the diving facilities would likely need to be moved to the Stromlo aquatic centre.
The pool will need to be moved irrespective of the stadium decision, with Barr now keen to build a 10,000-capacity events pavilion on the site just off Parkes Way after previously flagging his intent to make it an emergency services headquarters.
Space constraints were the primary reason Barr ditched the Civic stadium vision, saying it was too complicated and too expensive to build a 30,000-seat venue.
But rather than thinking bigger, Alexander is thinking smaller. He says a more intimate venue could be the answer to end the stadium wars.
"The No. 1 thing about a stadium as a player is how full it is," Alexander said. "Who cares how big it is. Is it sold out, or not?
"That has to be top of mind. My preference would be about 10,000 and sell it out every week, then go to Bruce for the bigger matches.
"It's something that maybe we could get done in three or four years."
Alexander also weighed into the roof debate. It is estimated fewer than 20 per cent of the 25,000 seats available at Canberra Stadium are covered by a roof.
Putting a fully enclosed roof on a stadium would at more than $100 million to the final bill, but Alexander says it's worth it in terms of on-field performance.
"You saw with the Highlanders when they got the roof on the stadium in Dunedin, they changed. They used to be about big forwards, then they went attacking under the roof," Alexander said.
"It changes the way you prepare because you know it's going to be a dry, fast game no matter what. A roof would be great. The other option is as long as all the fans have a roof over their head, let the players get wet."